Cleveland Browns

Cleveland Browns: Hue Jackson's Lament, Languishing in NFL's Dungeon

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson was poised to help rebuild a franchise. Unfortunately, the weight of history has dragged him down.

In the 2016 offseason there was arguably no better head coaching hire than the Cleveland Browns stealing Hue Jackson away from the Cincinnati Bengals. Jackson has been looking for a chance to prove his worth after being unceremoniously dismissed from the Oakland Raiders after a lone 8-8 season.

One of the best offensive minds in the NFL, Jackson has shown he can succeed in a range of different and adverse circumstances. He saw Carson Palmer‘s return to greatness before anyone else, he turned Andy Dalton into more than just a measure for mediocrity, and he has shown the grit and resolve that marks a great NFL coach.

Few coaches get knocked down like Jackson did in Oakland and are able to rebound.

The Browns are supposed to be Jackson’s triumphal return to the NFL’s leadership. In Michael Silver’s brilliant “First 33 Weeks” piece on Jackson at NFL.com, he highlights the mind, resolve, and measured success of Jackson through his career. He also highlights just how critical his presence is in turning around the dogged, depressed culture of the NFL’s perennial dungeon: the Cleveland Browns.

Turning around a culture of losing is difficult in any organization. It’s arguably even more difficult when an entire city buys into it, tracking the annual futility in store windows or posting screaming rants to the stadium on YouTube. Jackson has the weight of the whole team and the whole city on his shoulders as he pushes against an invisible weight that has shackled the Browns for over a decade.

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With injuries piling up at key positions (most notably at quarterback), the work only gets harder. What could have been a triumphal improvement on an abysmal history has become harder and harder hurdles for Jackson to overcome. His monumental seemingly gets bigger each and every week.

It isn’t as if the Browns didn’t know they would be bad in 2016, as Spin Zone’s Zac Wissink wisely notes, but the misfortune affecting this team is at a point where people can fairly wonder if it is a curse. While a curse certainly isn’t the case (as Wissink highlights in a later piece), the fact remains that the Browns are a bad team that has been kicked while they are down.

They have been kicked again. And again. And again.

Now with quarterback Cody Kessler slated to step up as starter in Week 3, the challenge to win becomes even more difficult. Unlike the Denver Broncos’ Trevor Siemian or Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, Kessler hasn’t shown the ability to be ready for an NFL offense and NFL speed to this point.

While Kessler is prepping hard (per the Akron Beacon Journal’s Nate Ulrich), this is a mad rush to get ready rather than the more prepared build up based on a strong preseason or planned succession after a quarterback battle. Kessler is being rushed into action a la New England Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett; only unlike the Patriots, the Browns don’t have a history of turning nobodies into superstars.

2016 started with so much optimism for Hue Jackson and the Cleveland Browns. His presence and willingness to place a city and team on his shoulders made believers out of most everybody across the NFL. But it may not be enough.

Cleveland may just be too heavy. The Browns may just be too heavy. What can go wrong is going wrong and Jackson is struggling with the added albatross around his neck. What should have been a strong foundation for a future rebuild is quickly shaping into a long, painful lament for one of the NFL’s best coordinators/coaches. Only two weeks in and it’s become tough to be hopeful.

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